ONCE in a generation movie Koi Mil Gaya took everyone by surprise when it was released on August 8, 2003.
From the unique subject matter to the leading man’s remarkable transformation, special effects and introducing an extra-terrestrial into Bollywood, the sci-fi spectacular became a landmark movie and won multiple awards.
It had a stand-out performance from Hrithik Roshan, which won multiple awards. The Rakesh Roshan directed musical about an alien befriending a mentally challenged young man, also spawned two superhero inspired sequels and a cartoon spin-off.
Eastern Eye decided to mark 20 years of a great film by presenting 20 fun facts connected to it.
- Rakesh Roshan was motivated to make an out of the box film after attending the premiere of Lagaan (2001). The idea of an extra-terrestrial movie came to him after seeing his five-year-old granddaughter watching a series about it on a cartoon network later that same year.
- Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff both rejected the father’s role. Rishi Kapoor was approached to take on the character, but he declined and suggested that Rakesh Roshan should play it himself, which he did.
- Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was the first choice to play the leading lady. Her unavailability led the director to cast Preity Zinta. Rakesh Roshan had been impressed by her supporting role in Dil Se and felt she would be perfect for the role. Zinta described it as one of her career’s toughest and most fulfilling roles.
- Like all his previous directorial efforts, Rakesh Roshan started the film title with the letter ‘K’. But before settling on Koi Mil Gaya, he had considered calling the sci-fi adventure Koi Aap Jaisa, Koi Tumsa Nahin and Kaisa Jaadu Kiya.
- A number of different spectacles were tried for the mentally challenged character played by Hrithik Roshan. They eventually used the same pair his super suave character Raj wore in Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai.
- The actor lost a lot of weight to play the adult with the mind of an 11-year-old, but it wasn’t enough. To create the illusion of further weight loss, he wore baggy clothes and had a hairstyle that made his face look thinner.
- Legend has it that Hrithik took inspiration for his Rohit look, when he is mentally challenged, from legendary spoof singer Weird Al Yankovic.
- Jadoo was played by late actor Indravadan Purohit dressed in the costume, with animatronic headgear. He couldn’t see anything and had to rely on instructions to move around. Purohit also found it hard to breathe in the costume.
- Principle photography for the path-breaking movie commenced on November 12, 2001 and finally concluded in March 2003. The ambitious project went over budget, largely due to the special effects and designing the alien.
- What most audiences did not notice was the alien Jadoo being given an extra thumb, just like Hrithik’s character has in the film. Hrithik revealed it was there for the two characters to feel familiarity but kept subtle because it didn’t turn out how they wanted after the alien was designed.
- Two endings were originally shot for the film, with one seeing Rohit lose all his powers after the alien leaves the Earth. After hearing the opinions of leading filmmaker friends, Rakesh Roshan opted for a happier ending where Rohit retains his powers. This would subsequently set up a hit superhero sequel.
- A key plot point of Koi Mil Gaya sees the lead protagonist’s father dying in a car crash and his mother getting injured. The same thing happened to Preity Zinta when she was 13 years old, with her father dying and mother surviving a car crash.
- Hrithik won both the Best Actor Critic’s and Best Actor at the Filmfare Awards for Koi Mil Gaya.
- It was widely believed that Koi Mil Gaya was the first Bollywood film to deal with aliens, but that wasn’t the case. Forgotten 1967 sci-fi drama Wahan Ke Log had an alien theme. (Incidentally, the lead protagonist of that sixties classic was named Rakesh, which is the same as the Koi Mil Gaya director).
- Preity Zinta’s love interest in the film was named Rohit (Hrithik). Later in 2003, she had a love interest named Rohit in Kal Ho Naa Ho played by Saif Ali Khan. Koi Mil Gaya and Kal Ho Naa Ho were the two highest grossing films of that year. (Incidentally, Hrithik had played a character named Rohit in his debut movie Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai)
- A German dubbed version of the movie was released with the title of Sternenkind(Star Child) in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland duringChristmas of 2005.
- Indonesian soap opera Si Yoyo was based on Koi Mil Gaya and ran from 2003–2007. Telugu film Orey Pandu(2005) was also inspired by the sci-fi classic. In 2004, Nickelodeon India produced a spin-off TV series based on alien character Jadoo titled J Bole Toh Jadoo.
- Rakesh Roshan was inspired to make a sequel to Koi Mil Gaya after watching the The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
- A book titled The Making Of Koi Mil Gaya: You are Not Alone, Behind the Scenes by James Colmer was published in 2003.
- Multiple high-profile people told Rakesh Roshan his son Hrithik playing someone mentally challenged in Koi Mil Gaya would end his career. How wrong they were. The movie became a big hit, spawned two sequels and another one is on the way. It remains a classic and is still celebrated today.
A seated Jain enlightened teacherAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Ganesha from JavaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
A Chinese silk painting depicting the BuddhaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
ArdhanarishvaraAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Head of a grimacing yakshaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
NagaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Bimaran casketAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Hunia Chawla
A still from rehearsal
Them performing liveNajmuddin Saifuddin Qawwal Group
The cast of Marriage Material in key moments from the play, including Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh
Sathnam Sanghera’s 'Marriage Material' adapted into bold new play on conformity
The play Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s novel of the same name, which first came out in 2013.
She is lucky to have Iqbal Khan direct Marriage Material. The play, a co-production with the Birmingham Rep, is set in the late 1960s. Mr and Mrs Bains (played by Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay) run a corner shop in Wolverhampton. Their younger daughter, Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh), is 16, her sister Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) is just a bit older.
They have a neighbour, Patwant Dhanda (Irfan Shamji), who, as we shall soon see, is not a very pleasant man. In fact, he comes across just as racist as Enoch Powell, who represented Wolverhampton South West for the Tories from 1950 to 1974.
It will be recalled this was a time when Sikhs working on the buses were told they couldn’t wear a turban. That was a hard-fought battle that had to be won.
The Bains, meanwhile, simply want to get their girls married off.
Nothing new here, I thought.
What makes the tale different is that the plot twists and turns down the generations. Mr Dhanda, who has the makings of a paedophile, makes a pitch for one of the girls when Mr Bains dies early in the play. “A life with no man in the house is no life,” he informs the newly widowed Mrs Bains.
Mr Dhanda has a wife but she has returned to India so he considers himself to be a free man.
Surinder’s English teacher from school, Miss Flanagan (Celeste Dodwell), who is also head of the fifth form, tells Mrs Bains about her daughter: “I don’t want to embarrass you, but she is bright. Ridiculously bright.”
She adds: “Mrs Bains, I think it would be a pity if Surinder didn’t stay on at school.” The initial response from Mrs Bains is not encouraging: “Too much education makes people’s brains get mixed up, they don’t sleep at night…”
But she is finally persuaded that Surinder should be allowed to stay on for a while longer before being married off.
Mr Bains was very old school. When Surinder confides she would one day like to be “a somebody”, he is amused that “my daughter wants to be a somebody”.
“Like you,” she tells her father.
Mr Bains consoles his daughter: “We will find a somebody for you to marry.”
At the point of a possible marriage, however, Surinder is sweet-talked by chocolate salesman Jim Wilson (Tommy Belshaw) into running away with him. They share a love of literature, and he calls her “Sue Bains”. But the relationship does not end well.
Once she has left, Surinder is written off as “dead” by her family. The story that is circulated is that she was only 16 when she was killed in a car crash. That’s better than to let on that she ran off with a white man.
By the time she is reconciled with her sister towards the end of the play, a great deal has changed. Kamaljit married Tanvir Banga (Omar Malik), a young man who helped out in the Bains’ corner shop. When the two sisters meet again, Tanvir has also died. But he and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan Banga (Jaz Singh Deol doubles up for this role after the death of Mr Bains). He has come home after his father’s death to help his mother who is still running the family corner shop.
Meanwhile, Mr Dhanda’s business has prospered. He now has a son, Ranjit Dhanda (the role is taken by Omar Malik after Tanvir’s death), and he is nearly as unpleasant as his father.
Arjan has an English fiancée, Claire (Celeste Dodwell). In London, Arjan worked as a creative director. But after deciding to stay in Wolverhampton to help his mother, he decides he cannot marry Claire because she is white. In other words, Asians are not free of racism, either. Happily, at the end, the couple are reconciled.
As for Surinder, she parted company with Jim Wilson after realising he was all talk, depended on her for money and had failed to earn a penny from his literary pretensions. She had prospered, though, as a hotel owner and had been transformed in time into a well-groomed businesswoman. After being tracked down by Arjan, she decides to return to her roots in Wolverhampton and help Kamaljit run the family corner shop. Perhaps 50 years had passed during the passage of the play.
Being subjected to racism turned some Asians into racists themselves. The word goreh (white person) is repeatedly spat out with venom. Maybe it is worth remembering the play’s audience isn’t exclusively Asian – white folk are watching as well. And maybe some of the toilet humour ridiculing white people, which always makes me cringe, could be cut out.
In Sanghera’s novel, there is a quote from Enoch Powell’s speech in November 1968: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact, he is a west Indian or an Asian still... he will by the very nature of things have lost one country without gaining another, lost one nationality without acquiring a new one. Time is running out against us and them. With the lapse of a generation or so we shall at last have succeeded – to the benefit of nobody – in reproducing ‘in England’s green and pleasant land’ the haunting tragedy of the US.”
In Marriage Material, where the acting is marvellous (apart from Mr Dhanda’s Indian mannerisms and accent being overdone) we do travel across a couple of generations.
There is a scene when Tanvir rejects Mr Dhanda’s vision of creating a little Punjab in Wolverhampton.
Mr Dhanda wants to take over the Bains’ corner shop and is putting pressure on Tanvir to sign the papers. He says: “In this country, money is the path to freedom.”
“Sign, please,” he instructs Tanvir. “We must make sure our children learn to behave nicely, according to our rules.”
He insists: “We maintain our identity so we can be ourselves.”
Tanvir disagrees: “We can be us here. With the goreh.”
Dhanda warns him: “Then we will be inviting chaos.”
Tanvir’s comment is telling: “You sound like Enoch.”
Kamaljit, who is expecting a baby with her husband Tanvir, says: “I would like my child to grow up knowing the history of the Gurus and to read the Granth Sahib. And to love their culture.”
Tanvir tells his wife: “I would like my child to go to the finest schools, to cheer for England in the World Cup and eat Yorkshire pudding on a Sunday.”
Kamaljit sets out a dream that has perhaps come to pass with many third and fourth generation British Asians: “Maybe our child can do both.” Much, much later, in a throwback to the past, we learn of Surinder’s O-level results: “Biology A, Chemistry A, English Language A, English Literature A, French A, History B, Latin A, Mathematics A, Physics A…”
Kamaljit tells her younger sister: “Never mind about the B.”
And that is quintessentially Asian. Their acting is outstanding.
Marriage Material is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until June 21, and at the Birmingham Rep from June 25-July 5